LGBT-related issues
A number of LGBT-related issues are exhibited by MarissaTheWriter stories. The internalized rejection of such issues as even existing by Marissa, the trolling identity, is in contrast with both Doombly and ASBusinessMagnet, the actual authors, having significant presences on Tumblr and generally being progressive when these issues are concerned, and ASBusinessMagnet in particular being transgender female. Sexual partnership Heteronormativity Main article: Heteronormativity Heteronormativity is the idea that only male/female romantic relationships are accepted. A vast majority of romantic couples in MarissaTheWriter stories are male/female, and the ones that aren't usually come with their own caveats. Monogamy Monogamy is the idea that any person can have one true ongoing romantic relation at once. This idea is often exhibited by characters who want to remain faithful to their love interests, such as Marrissa Roberts to Wheatly, or Gale Thunderpants to Hermoany. At other times, serial monogamy is present, as characters divorce only to remarry, such as Business Man divorcing Skepkitty and marrying Glaveria Mellark. Marrissa's monogamy is especially notable, as, as a Mary Sue, she is bound to both be attracted to different characters and have them attracted to her. However, as Marrissa is married to Wheatly (perhaps exhibiting traits of Christianity, despite MarissaTheWriter supposedly being an "aneurism" and being unfamiliar with Christian concepts), she never even goes as far as to have a relationship with these other characters. Monogamy is only explicitly broken by Meanie Pixies' Hour of Fame, which features a marriage between Jhonen Eggert-Vasquez, Rebecca Sugar-Vasquez and Ian Jones-Burnett which is three-way. Gender identity Transgender characters Most MarissaTheWriter story characters are read as one gender from their introduction to their last appearance, and are implied to be cisgender, meaning that they identified with their assigned gender from birth. However, some do not do this, and therefore are transgender. Transgender MarissaTheWriter story characters include: *Doombly stories **''ITS MY LIFE!'' ***P-Body **''Real Beauty'' ***Skepkitty **''HARRY POTTER AN THE KILL OF SNAPE'' ***Business Lady **''ITS MY LIFE ORIGINS: CAVE JONSON'' ***Cave Jonson *ASBusinessMagnet stories **''Enchiridion Marrissa'' ***Prettay Dog **''Marrissaverse Stories 2015'' ***Loreta Alcorn Most of these characters are based on real transgender people (who often came out as transgender after the stories first featuring them were written), whose identity was adjusted in Marissa stories simply to respect the people in question. While Prettydog200 has never expressed an identity other than female, she features a self-insert called "BERZERK MAN" in her MST of TEEN FORTRESS 2, putting her in the same category. The sole exception to the above rule is P-Body, whose gender Marissa incorrectly assumed as male when writing ITS MY LIFE! (calling the character "P-Boy" at first) and who later stated that she was actually female. Despite this, P-Body is later shown to be pregnant and have an abortion, which would require her to be cisgender female; however, it can be assumed that either humans in the Marrissaverse or robots have different rules regarding conception and pregnancy. The medical transition of transgender characters is an issue that divides Doombly and ASBusinessMagnet, but nevertheless, receives a problematic treatment regardless of who is writing. Doombly's version of Marrissa depicts Skepkitty prior to transition, intending to use both his gender and sex as potentials to attract mates (see Skepkitty for more details). Doombly would "amend" this in ITS MY LIFE: THE FLAMES AWAKENS by featuring Skepkitty as his assigned gender from his birth, before addressing the issue properly with ITS MY LIFE ORIGINS: CAVE JONSON with a proper (albeit spontaneous) declaration of transition. On the other hand, in ASBusinessMagnet's Marrissa stories, not only is medical transition of transgender characters virtually universally assumed to be a necessity, despite it being far from universal in real transgender people, but it is also depicted as convenient with little to no side effects. In Post-SCrash Session 3: Spectators of the Host, Skepkitty mentions transition non-chalantly, and while the transition of Business Lady gets some aspects of it, like estrogen and dilation, mentioned in The AG 1991 Premiere of Inside Out and Meanie Pixies' Hour of Fame, the surgery itself is not talked about in detail. Non-binary characters In addition to the limited feature of transgender characters in Marissa fic, there is also the limited feature of non-binary characters, who do not definitely identify as male or female. In particular, while transgender people in real life merely do not have to accept their birth gender, transgender Marissa characters typically identify as and transition to another binary gender. Non-binary MarissaTheWriter story characters include: *Doombly stories **''Invader Zim: Born Again Christian'' ***Skepness Man *ASBusinessMagnet stories **''Meanie Pixies' Hour of Fame'' ***Stephanie Universe ***SkepneLight Notably, none of these characters truly identifies as non-binary; rather, they are all fusions of a male character and a female character, and therefore have difficulty reconciling their identity as a binary gender. Singular characters who were either assigned a binary gender or born intersex, who identify as non-binary, are nonexistent in Marissa stories. Furthermore, Born Again Christian Skepness Man is referred to using " " pronouns by the narration and is an antagonist who dies two chapters after introduction. In real life, Vi Hart is a "gender agnostic" (a form of agender) preferring the term "person" over "woman" whose Wikipedia article does not use personal pronouns at all. However, in MarissaTheWriter stories, Ms. Hart is not referred to as anything other than "female". Skepkitty Skepkitty, a major person involved with Marissa stories, has gone through various stages of identifying as combinations of and variations on transgender and non-binary. This also holds some merit with regard to his fictionalization; despite this, Marissa stories often gloss over or do not fully cover the nuances of Skepkitty's transition. This is further complicated by the featuring of Skepkitty as a falmer troll and an antagonist, meaning that Marissa never truly respected his, and therefore might not respect his gender identity either, despite the alterations dependent on what Skepkitty himself states. In the past, Skepkitty has stated that whatever his identity was prior to first identifying as non-binary was private information only intended to be shared with his closest friends. Since Marissa stories reflect this past identity, in order to satisfy his demands, they would have to be retconned after release or removed altogether, something neither Doombly nor ASBusinessMagnet were willing to do. Later, Skepkitty adjusted his stance, stating that his past identity is likely not relevant to whatever is being discussed,"words i am not cool with: ... anything that references my birth assignment (chances are it’s not relevant)" - flarebossmalva, “This Whole Thing Smacks Of Gender,” i holler - URL: http://flarebossmalva.tumblr.com/the-genders/ and that Marissa fics do not need to be retconned due to the tangential relation between Skepkitty himself and his fictionalization."i don’t think there’s any need to retcon marissa’s work. her version of me has very little to do with me as an actual irl person, anyway" - flarebossmalva - URL: http://flarebossmalva.tumblr.com/post/167422937435/public-please-i-will-be-sourcing-this-in-mtw In Real Beauty, Skepkitty's character says that as pre-transition female-to-male transgender, he will be able to date the Once-ler, regardless of the latter's sexual orientation, but fails, as the Once-ler already has found a true love, Jane Burnham. This, coupled with the casting of Skepkitty as a villain, makes Marissa's intended stance on the issue unknown. In THE FLAMES AWAKENS, a version of Skepkitty featured shortly after birth is referred to using " " pronouns, meaning that the character is intended to be read as cisgender male. Likewise, Marissa does not comment on whether or not a message regarding Skepkitty's or the character's identity was intended. However, Skepkitty himself does not object to this."obviously a birth assignment in fiction that differs from my actual real-life experience is cool. if marissathewriter wants to call me “he” when i’m fresh out the womb, i’m fine with that." - ibid. Skepkitty currently identifies as non-binary. However, similar to Vi Hart, his fictionalization has never once been identified as non-binary. Gender roles In addition to the enforcement of male and female genders and the relationships between them, there is also the idea that male and female characters are predisposed to act in a certain way. One of the examples of this is the inclination to label females as "attractive" more often than males. This particular phenomenon is exhibited by Doombly's stories, in which only female characters are ever described as "hot and pretty", regardless of the gender of the character narrating. Most notably, a Mary Sue will be described as more "hot and pretty" than her siblings, clones or other female characters. Family name A notable example of gender roles is how the oldest male member of a family (typically the father) is considered to be the family's head, and therefore, his last name becomes the family name, which is passed on to the other family members. Unlike other issues, this issue is almost universally ignored in Marissa stories. While some of this ignoring includes matrilineal names, passed on from the oldest female member (typically the mother) of a family rather than from the oldest male member, it is also in large part due to the stories not being consistent on what constitutes a first, middle, or last name. Both qualities are exhibited in the names of the members of the family of the principal Mary Sue of Marissa stories, Marrissa Roberts. In this name, "Roberts" is a middle name (derived from a character named Marrissa Roberts Lettuce), yet is passed on to her child, Chell Junor Roberts, as a last name, ignoring the last name of her husband, originally known as Harry Potter but later known mononymously as Wheatly. References See also *Articles on related topics on Wikipedia: **LGBT **Monogamy **Gender identity ***Transgender ***Genderqueer (redirect from "Non-binary") **Gender role **Surname (redirect from both "Family name" and "Last name") *